"By the late 1980s, Bernstein was becoming notorious for increasingly snail-pace tempi, leading some to suggest he'd lost the plot. This marvelously fleet and sensitively balanced performance of Schubert's Symphony No. 9, recorded live in 1987, is enough to knock that perceived wisdom on the head. The grandeur of the opening moments, with French horns to the fore, is assertive and warm, and Bernstein steers a dynamic pathway through the labyrinthine first movement. The Scherzo is winsomely playful and the Finale rocks and rolls towards its affirmative conclusion. Schumann's Manfred Overture is stylish music-making personified."—Classic FM